In the ancient darkness of the Moon's south pole, where craters have held their frozen secrets for billions of years, humanity is reaching once more toward the unknown. China's Chang'e-7 mission — named for a lunar goddess — will dispatch a lander, rover, and an unprecedented hopping probe to search for water ice that could make permanent human settlement beyond Earth not merely a dream, but an economy. The mission is both a scientific endeavor and a geopolitical declaration, as Beijing and Washington each maneuver to be the first civilization to plant lasting roots on another world.